Tiberian Sun vs. Red Alert 2

Tiberian Sun is the sequel to the original Command and Conquer, continuing the story of the GDI/NOD conflict. It’s set in a bleak future in a world ravaged by the spread of tiberian – perfectly reflected in the game through its gloomy environments and sound.

Despite the incredibly cheesy live action cut scenes, this is a far more sombre and serious title than the original in terms of story, visuals and gameplay. It has a very different look and feel compared to C&C, and not just because of its new isometric camera view.

The atmosphere is fantastic. The maps are murky and … dirty. This is a world where tiberian won, not NOD or GDI. Cities are in a state of ruin. Bridges are collapsed. Ion storms cause havoc with technology.

And now we have a third faction to contend with – the mutants. Known as ‘The Forgotten’ these are people who have been exposed to tiberian and mutated as a result. They appear during both NOD and GDI campaigns as either enemies or allies.

Unlike the first C&C, you’re not playing as a faceless commander, but as two named characters. For GDI you’re the ultimate badass ‘McNeil’ played by a bored looking Michael Biehn. For NOD, you’re ‘Slavik’ who is a hardcore Kane groupie and always does as he’s told which doesn’t make him particularly interesting.

The story is a little disjointed, with cut-scenes not always following on logically from the actual missions. I’m assuming this is because they began filming the cut-scenes before they’d fully planned the actual campaigns. It results in a strange disconnect between some of the live action scenes and some of the subsequent missions.

There are entirely new units and buildings in Tiberian Sun, although many are based on those in the original in an upgraded form. Several units have secondary functions, such as the Nod tank that can dig itself into a hole to become a fixed and partially shielded cannon emplacement.

Like the first game, GDI units tend to be more slow, powerful and expensive, whilst the NOD units are cheap, fast and weak. Unfortunately, like the first game, it’s also far easier and more efficient to simply spam a couple of unit types in order to win. Unit balance certainly isn’t a strong point. Thankfully, Tiberian Sun does a far better job of providing variety throughout its missions.

It also provides a degree of player choice, with optional missions to undertake that will impact the ‘main’ mission to a limited degree, such as destroying a small supply base in order to prevent reinforcements during your main assault. There’s also more what you might call ‘mini-missions’ which don’t revolve around base building, but using a limited number of units to complete a specific objective.

I’ve never been a great fan of these types of missions in RTS, as they tend to devolve into a lot of ‘save scum’ because every unit is too valuable to lose. You end up exploring the hidden map to see what’s ahead and then reload until you find the ‘safe’ path to your objective. Not terribly exciting, and Tiberian Sun has a little too many missions like this for my taste.

But overall, I did enjoy the campaigns, probably the GDI campaign more than NOD because Slavik was such a dull git. The unit variety is decent, even if you’ll rarely make full use of it. The visuals are nice. The story is a little weak but Kane is always fun to watch. Tiberian Sun is better than the original. It’s a solid and enjoyable RTS, but I’d rate it as good rather than great.

Red Alert 2 is generally regarded as the best of the Command Conquer franchise. It’s the game that shifted the tone of the Red Alert series away from sombre and serious into over the top and silly, creating a clear distinction between it and the GDI/NOD games.

This is reflected in both its story and gameplay. It’s bright, colourful and extremely enjoyable to play. The faction rosters are excellent, offering a diverse range of units ranging from the expected soldiers and tanks, to the rather more fanciful psychics and giant squids. The soviets certainly get the best toys which makes their campaign the most fun.

That said, I do prefer the allies campaign in terms of story. Because the allies get Tanya and as much as I like RA1 Tanya, the Tanya of RA2 is easily best Tanya.

In terms of graphics, sound and animation, RA2 still looks and sounds fantastic. The missions offer a decent variety of maps and objectives. Unit balance is pretty good. If I had one main complaint about Red Alert 2, it would be its length.

Several missions, particularly in the allies campaign, can be completed in as little as 8-10 minutes. Red Alert 2 is faster paced than the original – which is something I like – but it does result in missions that end rather abruptly. It really would have benefited by having more multi-objective missions and maps that expand when certain objectives are met.

Some of the maps feel quite small and it’s far too easy to spam and rush your way to victory. If you’re playing Red Alert 2, you really need to play it with its excellent expansion – Yuri’s Revenge – otherwise it may feel a little short and unsatisfying.

I don’t have much more to say about Red Alert 2. It’s easily one of, if not the best game in the Command and Conquer series with great story, graphics, sound and excellent gameplay. Just be sure to play it with its expansion. Up next? Tiberium Wars versus Red Alert 3.

FINAL SCORE

Tiberian Sun – 7/10

Red Alert 2– 8/10